sauce
Americannoun
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sauces
plural
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any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.
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stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.
cranberry sauce.
-
something that adds piquance or zest.
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Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.
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Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.
He's on the sauce again.
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Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.
verb (used with object)
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sauces,
present (3rd person singular)
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sauced,
past participle, past
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saucing
present participle
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to dress or prepare with sauce; season.
meat well sauced.
-
to make a sauce of.
Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.
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to give piquance or zest to.
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to make agreeable or less harsh.
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Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.
noun
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any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour
-
anything that adds piquancy
-
stewed fruit
-
dialect vegetables eaten with meat
-
informal impudent language or behaviour
verb
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to prepare (food) with sauce
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to add zest to
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to make agreeable or less severe
-
informal to be saucy to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
saucesimple
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saucessimple
-
have saucedperfect
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has saucedperfect
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am saucingprogressive
-
are saucingprogressive
-
is saucingprogressive
-
have been saucingperfect progressive
-
has been saucingperfect progressive
Past
-
saucedsimple
-
had saucedperfect
-
was saucingprogressive
-
were saucingprogressive
-
had been saucingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sauce
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; see also salt 1
Explanation
A sauce is a nearly-liquid or soft topping or condiment for food. You might prefer your spaghetti with tomato sauce and your broccoli with cheese sauce. The cuisine of every country and region has its own sauces, from chutney served with Indian dosas to Hollandaise sauce on eggs Benedict and caramel sauce dolloped on sticky toffee pudding. You can even use sauce as a fancy verb: "Shall I sauce the beef?" Figuratively, to sauce someone is to speak in an impudent or cheeky way.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I served it with toasted sourdough tips for scooping up all that lovely sauce.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
One is for quail in rose petal sauce, which Crook made for his girlfriend at the time, whose name was Clea.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
The secret sauce is a combination of buzz and scarcity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
After we’d ordered salt-and-pepper shrimp and branzino with sauce vierge and fennel herb salad, I chatted with veteran manager Jared Deery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
A second later, he’s back with a bottle of hot sauce.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
A group of conservative German MEPs are also seeking a specific carve-out for meat names in snacks and sauces in separate legislation, external currently making its way through the European Parliament.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
The beans come swimming in almost velvety sauces that are good enough that I’d aspire to make them myself.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
They appear in sauces, salads, and cocktails, and even serve as colorful seasonal decorations.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 29, 2026
It also started a fledgling offshoot, called Saucy by KFC, that serves tenders, sauces and drinks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Mom would say she needed tomato paste for sauces, and they would come back with canned tomatoes instead.
From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
Ferrell said later that he was glad to be in the back row because it meant nobody behind him got sauced.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
The capers themselves are fried to create a crisp garnish for the sauced asparagus.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 12, 2023
That was topped with pickled red onion, pickle slices and coleslaw, before being sauced with hot maple syrup and a barbecue ranch dressing.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2022
Mile 11 of Interstate 55, in Memphis, was sauced up.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2022
"Her page. She invites you to sup with her again. There's to be a haunch of venison, she says, a brace of stuffed geese sauced with mulberries, and—" "—her daughter," Tyrion finished sourly.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Of this generous, very pretty platter, my only sorrow was an uneven saucing, leaving one side somewhat bereft of the overall excellence.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
How does one cram the time capsule of an entire seasoning and saucing life into a 32-quart Igloo?
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2022
But like self-absorbed restaurant owners everywhere, I push for more, hungry for feedback about the roll I selected for the brisket sandwich or the artful saucing of the pasta in her Thermos.
From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2019
But for the last couple of weeks, two guys known for making pizzas in Altadena have been frying and saucing excellent chicken wings out of a corner of the store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2016
Then Albert Edward stumbled within and The O'Murphy hung about outside saucing the brass-collared Staff dogs and waiting to gather up what fragments remained of his chum's body after the General had done with it.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, June 6, 1917 by Various
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